Jeff McDonald: Spurs get ‘All Shook Up’

Even before the doors opened to the media at the Spurs’ shootaround this morning, we heard sounds never before heard on the team’s practice court, wafting through the walls.

Is that …. Elvis music?

Indeed, it was. It turns out today is Elvis Presley’s 74th birthday (according to some of the more reputable supermarket tabloids, he celebrated by taking the day off from his job as the drive-thru cashier at a Phoenix-area Del Taco).

It also turns out that a certain Spurs head coach is a big Elvis fan. So Gregg Popovich provided the (Jailhouse) rockin’ soundtrack for the team’s shootaround, pumping Elvis music over the in-house stereo system. For a few hours, “The King” didn’t mean LeBron James.

For some Spurs, the experience was an education.

“Am I an Elvis fan?,” asked Spurs point guard/French rap star Tony Parker, repeating a reporter’s question. “I know him, obviously, like everybody else. I never really listened to his music. I know Pop is a big fan of Elvis, so it was pretty cool. The songs are all in my head now.”

For center Matt Bonner, the Elvis serenade was a bit much.

“We do shooting games at the end of walk-through every day, and (the music) definitely stymied me and Jacque over at hoop No. 4,” Bonner said. “We came up empty.”